How I Got A Job

I'd like to talk about making that video, which was a ton of fun as well as an ass load of work. A friend of mine that works at Comedy Central, and had worked with Radical Axis on the animated show "Freak Show", told me I had to hook up with these guys. He contacted Radical Axis and told them about me. A month after settling in Atlanta I e-mailed them and set up a meet and great. I traveled up to the Radical Axis magic factory at 11 am on Tuesday February 12th. I met, my now good friend and boss, Craig at the door. He led me into a small office. The Radical Axis rulers Craig, Scott and Todd watched a couple of my films that I brought on a DVD. They liked them a lot. Next they gave me a tour of the place.

You could have knocked me over with a feather that day. I'm a huge Aqua Teen fan, and I was just in shock that I was standing in the building where it was made and talking to the people who made it. After the tour they said there really wasn't any work there right then, but they would keep me in mind if anything came up.

They weren't lying, because that Friday, a mere three days after meeting them, they called me on speaker phone with Matt Freaking Maiellaro, one of the creators of Aqua Teen. Inside I was flipping out, but I tried not to sound like an idiot on the phone. They asked me if I could animated a music video in a month. I said I could, not knowing if that was true or not. We set up a meeting for the following Monday.

I downloaded the song that night and started working on a little animatic to show the guys. I animate using Final Cut Pro, which is retarded and takes much longer than it should, but it works for me. My in laws were in town that weekend, so I had to juggle them and work on the piece. Every second I had free I tinkered on the animatic. I was nervous about the meeting and I wanted to have something to show the guys.

Monday rolled around and I went into the meeting with the below test as a quicktime burned onto a CD. Matt was there. All the guys loved the test. They didn't expect me to do anything. Matt immediately took the CD, pulled the test onto his computer, and e-mailed it to the band. They dug it and it was on. You've seen the video that I worked on 10 hours a day 6 days a week for a month, now witness the 25 second test that got me the job.




I just wanted to say thanks to Matt and Radical for believing that I could do it, and for giving me all the support along the way. I'd also like to thank the academy and my loving wife. Mom... Dad..... without you guys.... I have to go, there's something in my eye....